#poor peridot shes doing most of the work

[perisdynasty]

More Gemling content ♡

Caring for a newborn Gemling sure can tucker a couple of Gems out... and said Gemling, apparently.

[saltyr3mix]

i am very curious- STEVEN UNIVERSE AU?

YES YES YES YES YES YES

Hiiii ok, fair warning this won't make sense unless you've seen the show it have a basic understanding of it. This isn't a one to one line up but I'm going to be referencing cannon to help explain things.

SO STEVEN UNIVERSE AU

Basic character run dies for context

Lewis: taking the place of pink diamond/rose quartz. He had more morals than the other diamonds and feel entirely in love with earth and decided he doesn't to keep destroying things. Leader of the crystal gems and faked his death and all that jazz.

Wiatt: somewhat taking the place of Greg? Human that fell in love with lewis and is now helping the gens and recording video tapes about them to study and get a better understanding. Massive dork and gets along well with everyone and does a lot of the peace treaty stuff between them and the rest of the town.

Mike and Alyssa: agian sort of vaguely take pearls place. Lewis hated the concept of pearls and despised having one, so instead the other diamonds gave him a Lapis and a Jasper to protect him. They follow him down to earth and he like could care less about what they do and do they start talking about rebellion and he's like, well that's a best idea sure! Be free!

They are dating and are really good friends with lewis as they fought side by side with him in the war. Them, Eric, and Ridley are the only ones that know that Lewis was a diamond and started the whole war thing. Both are crystal gems and have different, yet complicated relationship's with the humans in the town.

Eric: not taking any particular place. He's a peridot who was working on the ship Lewis and Morning glory flew down in. He is the only brain cell among anyone here. Lewis and morning glory were like, hey we want to be free! And didn't have a single clue how to actually free themselves until Eric came along. He's like sure I'll join your cause couldn't hurt, right?

He makes all of plans and war strategies. He's a lot more behind the scenes than on the field. Except for when he's fused. Eric loves fusing with people he finds it fun and a great bonding activity. It also helps him, not die a lot of the time. When Carly was around they were often seen together and fought as a pair and fusion, ferociously. Eventually Riddley enters the picture and he and Eric fuse more permanently as Ribbon dancer.

Carly: a mix of jasper and bismuth. A carnelian soldier who was one of the more violent of the gens during the war, but also the passionate. She hates being bossed around and the idea of freedom was something she lived for. She often helped Eric with his planning and fighting and saw him as a major mentor figure. He is the only person she respects willingly.

Unfortunately for her, during the war she was unable to be saved from on of the diamonds blasts and became corrupted, left in a bubble for later. And out of the picture for a while.

Riddley: Spinel. If you've seen the movie there not much to explain here. Silly guy who Lewis accidently forgot about because he was kind of busy leading an army and faking his own death. But unlike cannon Spinel. Riddley sucks at following instructions, look me in the eyes and tell me you think that man could stay still for 6000 years.

Anyway, he ends up getting bored and upset and decides to take matters into his own hands. Through a crazy story of hijinks and shannagins that may or may not be true, he ends up on earth, ready to see his best friend!

And lewis is so so so traumatized at this point Ridley comes in a week after the blast and so allll of his army and friends are gone except for mike, Alyssa, and Eric who were the only ones he was able to save on time. Riddley is like it's fineeee man. Chill out. Have some fun! And is just met with the most depressing sobs. Eric eventually does something about it and takes the Spinel aside to try and explain that their all grieving and that it's hard to be happy right now. And poor Riddley does his best to understand but it doesn't quite click for him and he's so unaware of it all. At some point he makes a joke or something tgat's something Carly used to say and Eric experiences every emotion known to man all at once and promptly decides he's just going to be Ridleys baby sitter for the time being. Bonding happens and they fuse and it's just, it's the happiest either of them have been in a long time and they just stay like that unless their needed separately.

WOW THATS A LOT OK-

those are the main guys at least. The ones who call themselves crystal gems at least.

Triplets and twins share a whole story arc and stuff to get there, and Oliver and Damien take even longer to explain because that's when I just started throwing cannon out the window entirely.

Oliver, klein's, minimum wage trio, Andrew, And Hazel/Marissa/broken bots are all humans that live in Dream City, the town beside the crystal gems base

Litho, Sara and Norman are the other diamonds. With Allison, Winnie and Morris as their pearls.

Salt you just said Andrew was a human how is Morris Norman's Pearl? THATS INTENTIONAL AND VERY PLOT IMPORTANT I SWEAR!! BUT THIS POST IS SUPER LONG SO YOUR GOING TO HAVE TO ASK FOR MORE LORE IF YOU WANT IT.

(I have drawings too if anyone wants to see those)

[meteor752]

DL kids SU AU?

Obsessed with how there’s literally one actual word in this ask

God, that’s so weirdly specific, and also a fandom I have not thought of in years

Let’s see what I remember

Liana would be an Aquamarine, cause they’re small, manipulative little bastards, and has wings. Plus, their fashion senses are kinda similar. Another alternative with be a Zircon, but I think Aquamarine fits better. Her gem would probably be on the back of her hand.

Wes would be an Agate. First instinct was Topaz since, big yellow guy, but it felt too obvious. I just like the idea of poor Wes being expected to be in charge of an entire facility like Holly Blue, and having about five breakdowns per minute. Plus there’s an actual agate called the moss agate, which is fitting with his cloak. His gem would be located on his bicep.

Gertrude would be a Rose Quartz. Most quartz soldiers are shown to be big, intimidating, and powerful, but are mostly huge friendly dorks with a strong sense of community. The ones at the zoo were more like therapists than actual warriors, which checks out great with our doggy gal. An Emerald would probably work as well, if you wanna play more into the whole princess thing she kinda has going for her, seeing as they are commanders. Her gem would probably be on her back.

I’m inclined towards a Ruby with Johnny, and that’s like 60% because our Ruby became a cowboy for one episode. But also little red guy! Fire powers! Usually very dumb, naive, and fighting inclined! That’s our boy right there! Johnny would probably have his gem on his forehead.

Jassy is a Jasper, but one that came out wrong. I’m mainly thinking Skinny here, cause like while Jassy is strong she is also a bit more on the slim side compared to a regular Jasper, but otherwise she fits. Just like what I said during Gertrude’s bit, while Quartz soldiers are strong they’re also a bit goofy. She would have her gem over her left eye.

Jekiv is difficult purely because his whole thing is necromancy and the undead, but like that shit ain’t really a thing on Homeworld (Unless I missed a very interesting sounding comic). So instead I’m thinking of Jekiv as either a Pearl (Rebellious Pearl, snarky as hell) or a Peridot (Small grumpy green little goblin) though, maybe he’d be like one of those, fusion experiment things. Idk, I’m at a loss here. His gem would be on his belly button anyway.

Novo is a Spinel, to no one’s surprise. I mean the energy, the old timey rubber animation, the fucking running mascara. All those Blue Diamond!Spinel designs work very well with him, though he’d probably wear mostly human clothes. A Larimar or a Sapphire could also work, with the ice powers I mean, but other than that there’s not a lot of correlation. His gem would be on the back of his head.

An alternative to all of this would be that the kids are the fusions of the parents, which would mean that I would have to figure out what they would be, which I’m not doing. I think @chrisrin has done some Boatem fanart of that? Idk

Anyways, this was a waste of energy lol

[chinchillasinunison]

Cache 78 Backstories

I was thinking about my DR Gem AU again, particularly wanting to finish these short blurbs on the gem versions of Class 78. So, uh, that's what I did. Putting them under a readmore because this got loooong..

Petrol Pearl, Cabochon-M4Z0, Cut-5YK: She worked at a theater for performing pearls called The Oyster. However, she was basically an usher, never a performer herself. She would watch the shows longingly, wishing to join the gems onstage and sing. She shared this dream with the clutch of pearls on staff, who all thought she was crazy for having wants at all. She never got the chance to prove herself before Era 2 began.

Ruby, Facet-L30N, Cut-KW7: Was a bodyguard for a prized zoisite since he first emerged. Zoisites function as living turrets, able to fire devastating laser blasts at the cost of mobility while in battle mode (which is why they require guards). Though Zoisite had a whole team of rubies at her command, she became very close with him in particular. This grew into romantic infatuation which Ruby did not share. She tried to initiate fusion over 3,000 times with him, which he always refused. Zoisite's endless unwanted advances fostered a deep resentment in Ruby for his place in gem society along with dreams of rebellion, though he never acted upon them. When Era 2 began, the pair were still toxically codependent and fought by each other's side, until they were separated in an accident and Ruby encountered Purple Diamond, taking his deal for a chance to escape.

Peridot, Facet-F9S1, Cut-CH0: Peridot is an off-color, far too short for her caste. The only reason she wasn't shattered right away was because Yellow Diamond saw an enormous potential in her. She was extremely efficient at her technician work and created the programming for her limb enhancers and robonoids. Quite a well-respected gem in Era 1. During Era 2, all she did was hide away in an old Kindergarten until Purple Diamond found her.

Achroite, Facet-H1F1, Cut-YM4: Achroite is a tourmaline, and his Era 1 occupation was maintaining clear skies for Homeworld ships landing on and launching from colony planets by blowing clouds away. As he spent most of his time by himself in lonely lower atmospheres, he has very poor social skills and tends to live in his own head. To pass the time he used his nephelokinesis to draw and write stories for himself in the air. Similarly to Peridot, he spent most of Era 2 in hiding.

Onyx, Facet-C3L7, Cut-LD6: Though skinny, Onyx was as terrifying to her subordinates as any other agate. She carried herself regally but had a fiery temper. Secretly, she despised her position in the original hierarchy and longed to be an elite. When Era 2 rolled around, she took out the whole battalion of quartz soldiers beneath her by tricking them into entering a boobytrapped ship in the hangar they maintained in order to fulfill that dream. She planned to betray the rest of Cache 78 for her own gain as well before she was rejuvenated.

Biggs Jasper, Facet-S4K4, Cut-OG1: A perfect quartz champion of Black Diamond. Compassionate in secret, she grew to dislike the work she was doing to further gem colonization. With the Gem War being her tipping point, she used her strength and status to try to convince the Diamonds to hear The Crazy Diamonds out. They didn't, and instead White and Black had big plans for her. She was to be the gem to deal the first blow of Era 2… if she wanted her captured batch to not end up shattered. Throughout the following two millennia, they kept her on a tight leash until they heard wind of Purple Diamond's plans. She was the mole, sent to infiltrate Cache 78 and destroy them all, but she was instead rejuvenated alongside them.

Lapis Lazuli, Cabochon-A5H4, Cut-AO1: A chipper terraformer, she prefers swimming to using her water wings. When she and her terraforming partner Cut-YT4 worked together to shape a planet for conquest, it was play. Though she was carefree in her occupation, she got results. During Era 2, she and Cut-YT4 were nimble enough to simply dodge attacks before she was inducted into Cache 78. She prefers to be called Zuli as opposed to Lapis or her serial number.

Emerald, Facet-3YK4, Cut-TG1: A very highly ranked gem, he controlled multiple fleets that scouted out potential colony locations across the universe. With such a position, deciding the fate of thousands of organic lifeforms every day, his cold demeanor makes a lot of sense. When Era 2 began, he fled to his personal ship and acted defensively in the vastness of space until Purple Diamond picked him up and gave him his offer. Emerald longed so much for the old ways that he accepted.

Purple Spinel, Facet-FKW4, Cut-TK0: Purple Spinel was a companion created for a member of Purple Diamond's Court, designed as a morose storyteller of tales of doomed love (occasionally broadcasted on Homeworld communicators as anti-fusion propaganda). Eventually, that owner grew bored with her and abandoned her on an asteroid. The trauma from this event created an alter called Shatterer Spin, who protected Spinel from anyone that came too close to her heart.

Gold Sheen Sapphire, Facet-H6K3, Cut-HR0: An off-color sapphire who sees three tracks of fate simultaneously, Gold Sheen was somehow able to avoid shattering for quite a while by putting his predictions behind layers upon layers of personal favors and trades, only sharing when he needs to. However, when too many of the futures he shared didn't come to pass, he went on the run as a fugitive with a bounty on his head. He completely missed that Era 2 was even happening as his life was so chaotic already; Purple Diamond had to tell him himself when he was found. Gold Sheen is understandably paranoid towards the Diamond's proposition, thinking it is just a front to capture him, but agrees when Purple says once everything is said and done that he will be pardoned for his fraud.

Morganite, Facet-K1G1, Cut-KY0: Purple Diamond's personal investigator. Originally he kept her by his side as a companion, but both Morganite found it stifling and Yellow Diamond found it a waste of her talents. She is the only gem aside from Mondo, Daiya, Tashmarine, and the Diamond Sisters who knows that Crazy Diamond (aka Daiyamondo) is, in fact, just two tiger's eyes in a trenchcoat. Since her programming was so muddled by her creator at first, when she is rejuvenated she is much more like a classic amnesiac than a rebooted gem.

[yumeirochaser]

finished all of steven universe (show/movie/shippuden)

okay so stewing on it. this show as a whole is very good. great, even!! i feel like a lot of the criticisms thrown at it online are kinda bullshit, and it is way more nuanced than i remember. it is VERY flawed, but ultimately good.

i'll start with the pros of the whole project:

-really impeccable art direction and music. this show is a feast for the eyes, esp since it's a 2010s project

-very nuanced discussions of complex emotional topics (outside of one big case)

-REALLY good cast, there's only like 3 bad charas, but everyone else is really really good and compelling

-actually really good diverse and lgbt rep. i love yuri fam. we got so much yuri here.

-really good drama and jokes. it's actually very good at balancing both tones

-brisk and nice to watch

-REALLY good complex characters. rose/pink is unironically one of the tragic toxic woman all timers

-the songs rule. lotta bangers here

-i love the character designs a lot!!!!

so yeah it is VERY good!! but also really flawed. here's the cons:

-really bizarre show pacing and episode placing, which tbh i can't blame too much on them bc it WAS CN's fault for making the insane idea of stevenbombs

-the fuck it we ball planning is REALLY apparent at times

-the wide majority of the cast is very underfocused, despite the show constantly setting them up to have bigger roles. i would say the quartet of jasper/bismuth/lapis/peridot were the most prominent victims of this, but it's in general since it is the result of...

-steven himself being a VERY weak lead, with the insistence of everything being in his POV limiting the show and contriving plots more than anything. he is in fact imo, the show's biggest flaw, severely hurting it by the end of future. they really struggle with making him likeable and interesting, and the way the show insists to focus on him makes a lot of major character beats depend on him being on screen or just. happen completely off screen. certain plots also get REALLY convoluted to have him in places and private situations he really shouldn't be in for us to actually see what happens to other characters at all. he's also very one note and not really allowed to be as complex as the rest of the cast, with him constantly being exonerated of any wrong thing he does, by either being right all along or a woobie. this does get real uncomfortable with plots like the lars body swap ep, the lars/sadie ship eps and the entire second half of future bc. he gets reaaaal weird and possessive with the rest of the cast there and it's more or less glossed over. he also kind of is limited to One personality trait per season, being one walking fat joke in S1, fluctuating between funy permachild and messiah complex guy in the rest of the main show and the movie and becoming just walking whump material in future. it's weird bc he DOES improve and develop in S2, esp with the peridot arc, but then they more or less reverse his development for the rest of the show after the cluster arc ends??? it's a bizarre choice. his presence really looms over this show, like a black hole. like conceptually he's really good and he has moments where he can shine, but his execution in the majority of the show is very poor imo. like i get what they wanted to do with him in future and i agree it's a necessary topic to discuss. but also they should have made him like. an actual character people would like for that to work lmao

related to this we gotta talk about. connie. man. she was hit with the shonen jump love interest stick since very early on and she never recovered. her training arc kinda ends on nothing, she kind of only is there to fuse into stevonnie a bunch of the time (with their uh. weird ass early eps. why fanservice the little kid fusion.) and she more or less is just reduced to being steven's loyal emotional support woman by the end of future. honestly it's weird how nobody talks about the way she is treated bc it's oddly bad for a show that usually treats its diverse charas really well. like damn she really got done dirty.

but yeah i wish we were able to have eps with the rest of the cast leading bc they are really good characters. i think my faves are garnet (she actually got focused on the most out of all gems, which i don't really see fans mention either. she's great), rose (she's so fucked. i love it.), amethyst (more femmes should be allowed to be gross weird assholes in tv.) and peridot (rancid moe...). but i love all the gems they are great. the townies are also really fun!! (outside of ronaldo & kevin). i wish we could have actually seen more of the cast's lives, thoughts and interests outside of steven...i just really like these characters a lot

it's kind of a shame the show kinda goes down the gutter with future's second half bc the majority of it is really good shit with really nuanced handling of themes like chains of abuse, unorthodox families, familial abuse, trauma, abandonment, war and grieving. i legit think this show was something special and bold for its time, and i wish it ended in a better way. i had a really good time with it and i still love the cast a lot, but yeaaah they shouldn't have turned steven into the center of the universe. that really hurt it by the end. it's a good show that left me with a really weird feeling by the end. i will still cherish the time i had with it but yeaaah. it is a shame bc i really dig the concept of future, but the execution was like ehhhhhh hmmm not very good. the rest of the show clears in these topics tho we love screwed up girls. objectively tho there is way more good aspects to this show than good ones. it's just that the one big bad thing it has is the main focus of the whole dealio lmao

i wish future didn't screw up at the end but i am glad this show exists and it did pave the way for other shows! so at least there's that!! i will miss the crystal gems and their funky friends a lot....

[beevean]

The comparison between Steven Universe and IDW Sonic isn't really the best one, anyway, considering their goals are completely different. One of the main things Steven wanted to achieve was to help the corrupted gems, and he can't exactly do that if he shatters the only people who are capable of undoing that kind of damage to them. And even then Steven clearly wasn't comfortable around the diamonds after all that, to the point of trying to smash White's face into a pillar.

Well, I was talking about Steven throughout the entire series starting from Season 1, where he really was a naive kid showing kindness to Gems and creatures that the Crystal Gems would only attack - Centipeedle, Lapis, Peridot in Season 2 (whom Steven wanted to redeem since the finale of Season 1B)...

It's 100% true that the reason he played nice to the Diamonds was mostly for pragmatic reasons: he needed them. After uncorrupting all the Gems, well, they really wanted to do better, and by Future, they found a way to help Gems! Especially Yellow who was by far the most active in undoing the damage she made. So no point in shattering them.

The main difference between Steven and IDW Sonic is that Steven's pacifism worked until he met people unreceptive to it, and he was forced to fight - plus he had to handle the moral dilemma of his mom, the biggest force of good in the show, shattering Pink Diamond, a supposed dictator. But at least being nice and giving second chances gave results at first, so yeah it makes sense that he stuck to it! Sonic never really helped anyone, he always made things worse!

When Aquamarine came to Earth with a list of humans to kidnap, and those humans were people Steven casually namedropped to Peridot in a failed effort to befriend her, it was devastating, both for him and his poor martyr complex, and for the viewer, who would have never seen such a grave consequence coming from a simple moment of naiveté from Steven. When Surge blamed Sonic for being indirectly responsible for her pain, who cares? Get in line, girl, you're not the first person who Sonic brushed off because he cares more about describing his Principles than actually thinking about his actions.

[weedle-testaburger]

I'm going to try this character ask. Do I have to go for one or can I go for like two? If so Stan Marsh from South Park and/or Steven Universe.

Yeah I'm happy to do two!

Stan:

favourite thing about him: I love how he's permanently done with everyone else's bullshit, it's always really funny and kinda relatable to me

least favourite thing about him: when he says or does stupid shit because he doesn't know better and gives me second-hand embarrassment. Either that or T&M constantly making him suffer working on Randy's farm lately.

favourite line: 'Can't you just, kind of, fuck off?'

BrOTP: Style and lately cause of s25 Stolkien

OTP: Stendyle

NOTP: haven't really got one, I don't really do NOTPs for the most part besides obviously gross shit like abuse, incest, paedophilia etc.

Random headcanon: he eventually stops hating weed so much thanks to hanging out with Tolkien and just hates Tegridy Weed specifically

Unpopular opinion: I still kinda like the idea of stoner Stan even if Randy pretty much killed it, idk quite how he'd stop hating it but I'd like to imagine it

Song I associate with him: 1x1 by Bring Me The Horizon, a lot of BMTH songs give me a stan vibe tbh lol

Favourite picture of him: this one, or as I like to call it, the definitive Stendyle screenshot

Steven:

favourite thing about him: how he always tries so hard to see the best in people even when they're so unbelievably hostile to him

least favourite thing about him: seeing him push everyone away and bottle up his feelings as the show goes on, writing wise I think it's good but it's painful to watch. Poor kiddo needs therapy 😭

favourite line: 'I'm me! I've always been me.'

BrOTP: him and Lapis and Peridot

OTP: Connverse, probably a real shock to hear that one lol

NOTP: anything between Steven and gems, there's like a multiple thousands of years age gap so yeah I'll pass

Random headcanon: he probably loves to call Connie after she goes to college and just let her ramble about her degree or stuff she's up to

Unpopular opinion: I don't mind that we didn’t see his therapy, it's more important we got to see the people close to him look after him rather than introducing some random new character

Song I associate with him: for some reason Can I Call You Tonight by Dayglow has a real him vibe to me, mostly Future him trying to get support from his friends

Favourite picture of him: this one from the movie, he just looks grown up and happy it's so sweet

Thanks for asking!

[bluebellhairpin]

Habits AoT Characters Have

Part 1/?

Masterlist  

Levi Ackerman

The most obvious of Levi’s habits is how he holds his teacup. (Damn odd way to hold a cup, if I might say so.) He didn’t want to repeat that loss of tea. 

Second to this is how he needs everything to be clean. Personally, I think this can be connected back to his mother. 

Where he grew up - the Underground - it wasn’t a clean place. Morally, and physically. Being so young when she died, he might have connected the disease that brought her death with something painfully obvious - how dirty the Underground was.

Which would explain, why now, he likes keeping places and things around him clean. More for others than himself. He doesn’t want anyone dying like his mother did - because he wasn’t able to keep the environment clean enough.  

I also think he hums. It’s very soft. And he only does it when he’s alone. But he does it. Mostly at night when his insomnia get’s too much - even if it is only his own humming, his room feels less empty. 

He does it a lot when an expedition had been especially bad. Like in the Female Titan arc, after his squad was killed. 

He did the same thing after Kuchel died. Sitting across from her, he’d hum to make him think she was still there. That he wasn’t alone. 

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Reiner Braun

Post-Timeskip, he rubs and scratches his chin a lot. Mostly when he’s anxious or in deep thought. 

Pre-Timeskip, back when no one knew he was the Armoured Titan, he would keep an eye on everyone. He did form a bond with the others in the 104th, even if he didn’t or refused to believe it, and he would look out for them all.

He big-brother every single one of those other cadets. 

Hence how he taught Eren that defence moves in training so he could take on Annie. He didn’t know it’d be used on him later, but hey, how was he supposed to know Eren was also a titan shifter? Huh? You tell me. 

I also headcanon he’d a real heavy sleeper. 

Due to having to pair up with Bertholdt, and no doubt sleep with - or very close to him - he got used to how he slept and adapted. 

You could literally walk over him while he slept, and all Reiner would do is deeply sigh - still asleep - and roll over. You could roll over him, and he’d subconsciously stretch his arms above his head. Deadass - unless you made a lot of nose, barely anything physically done to him while he slept would wake him up. 

Built like a brick shit-house, and sleeps like one too. 

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Miche Zacharias

He’d work in the kitchens before meals and low-key sniff everything to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. Especially the higher-officials foods. 

He was never asked to do it, he just did. 

Also a heavy sleeper. No one’s fault. Just is. 

It’d take a lot to wake him up by accident, but - unlike Reiner - he does have a sixth sense for trouble. So if you were in his room to prank him, he’d wake, but if you just needed to grab something and ‘oh look, I threw a party while I was getting it’ he would barely stir at all. 

Taps his feet. 

He’s like sitting in a meeting, and his foot is tapping the table leg and he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. Or he’s standing against a wall - leaning, more like - and his heel is hitting the wall over and over. Or he’s overseeing cadet training - arms crossed, and he’s resting his weight on one foot and tapping the dirt with the toes on his other. 

Even if he’s lying in bed, before reaching the heavy throngs of slumber, he’s rubbing his foot against the mattress as if her were tapping it. 

It’s another ‘no explanation’ habit, but it’s there and no one’s brought it up with him yet so - to date - he doesn’t even know he does it. 

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Hange Zoe

Forget’s to sleep. 

Doesn’t have insomnia like Levi does, but they get as much sleep as he does only because they don’t know when to stop researching, reading, experimenting. Moblit has the habit of walking up at three in the morning to take Hange off to bed because of their habit. 

They drink hot water. One slice of lemon. five teaspoons of sugar. 

Is slowly being weaned off it - Moblit, again. They used to have twelve - but the warm sweetness with the sour does something to them and no one knows why but despite the nature of the drink it does calm her a little. 

Call it major reverse psychology. 

Eats yellow things. 

Yellow flower? In the mouth. 

Yellow drink? Mouth. 

Yellow bite-sized frog? Yep, mouth. 

Levi; “Piss?” Unfortunately and probably the mouth. 

It’s like some animal instinct to stuff these yellow things in their mouth - much to Moblit’s distress. Poor guy can’t catch a break. He’s Hange’s keeper. 

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Erwin Smith

He runs. 

I was gonna add more, but I got distracted halfway through the sentence. I came back and found I do actually believe he runs. Peridot. 

Younger cadets and even older officers will purposely wake up for early self-training just to watch him run. He know this. Has tried to avoid it. But he’s just so in ‘the habit’ of waking up and running at that time that he couldn’t just change that. 

Back to what I was going to say - He runs the feathered tip of his quill against his jawline when he’s pondering over the papers he’s working on. It’s a light - feathery lol - brush, very faint. 

Much like the first listed habit of his, it distracts those around him - which is why he likes being alone when working on papers - because the habit it draws attention to his immaculate. ‘sculpted by the gods’, greek, physique. 

And he can’t just stop or change this habit like the other one either. It helps him think. So when he had tried to stop he takes twice as long to get his paperwork done, so he just gave up.

Post-Arm-Loss, he holds his stump. 

He’s thinking, or staring at a wall, and his hand comes up and holds where his arm used to be. Not in mourning. This is just something he did. 

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Jean Krischtein

He draws. This is a canon headcanon. I don’t care. It needs more attention drawn to it (pun intended) so I’m listing it. 

He draws people important to him, or people he misses. 

Admittedly, it’s mostly of his mother or Mikasa. But he does have a collection of drawings of Marco. And even some of Reiner and Bertholdt. And Annie. He drew on of Levi’s squad and ‘the veterans’ too. 

Post-Timeskip, he does tie his hair back sometimes. 

If Levi’s sent him to clean, or he’s just cleaning, he has a makeshift headband he uses to keep everything away from his face so he can see clearly. 

And yes, he does still ‘Levi deep-clean’ post-timeskip. The others have grown out of it a little, but he’s kept it up. He likes how satisfied he feels after he’s spent all this time getting rid of all the dirt. He is one of Levi’s favorites because of this. 

I think he’s also a ‘closet compassionate character’ - so especially after the ‘titan-shifter betrayal’ he stepped up and took the place Reiner once had as someone who looked out for the others of the 104th. He barely shows it, but he does make sure everyone stays as much out of harms way as possible. 

[takeninbadfaith]

The “Thou Shalt Nots”

and the “tip” that could have replaced all of them.

AKA the “No Shit Sherlock” group

AKA Did you need these tips? is that why you put them in? Aside from taking pot shots at She-Ra?

16: If the only gay man in your work is a faupish diva, you’re a huge turd.

No shit.

My gods, did this really need to be said? 

The only thing i’m questioning is what show is this in reference to? because damn near the rest of these are about characters in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. If you know, please tell me so i can find the diva and love the heck out of him. 

on a more serious note, while, yes, if your only gay male character that one has in their work aligns with the limp-wristed, lispy fop stereotype, then one does need to examine their writing and how they write characters, because gay men come in all personalities. If one of many MLM characters happens to be more femme, then that’s not a problem, as femme gay men can and do exist. 

17: If the only lesbian in your work is an abusive ragaholic with vague angst issues and a codependent relationship to a protagonist, you’re a huge turd.

So. This is a dig at She-Ra, and at the character of Catra in specific. Though, even then it’s a poor dig, becuase, ya know. Adora is also a lesbian or bisexual. Making Catra not the “only” lesbian character. Also there’s Netossa and Spinerella who are in a relationship. 

Diregentleman also pointed out that this list of characteristics also near perfectly describes Vaggy from Hazbin Hotel, a show that Orchard likes. So. The problems for her seems to not be with the stereotype of the angry lesbian, but with the fact that She-Ra and the Princess of Power existed.

18: If your only nonbinary character is a nonhuman shapeshifter, you’re a huge turd.

Dig at She-ra again, this time aimed at the character of Double Trouble. 

One the one hand, yes there is a problem of non-normative genders being only in non-human characters, but Double Trouble was ground breaking in a lot of other ways. For example, they were a non-binary character who was voiced by a non-binary voice actor. 

Also, I wonder if Orchard realizes how much shape-shifting can be a power fantasy for someone who is non-binary. I’m non-binary, and I would love to have shapeshifting powers. 

19; If your only autistic character is an ethically challenged number fetishist, you’re a huge turd.

Three strikes at She-Ra. the target this time is Entrapta. 

I don’t think that she is canonically autistic. Anyone can feel free to correct me, but while Entrapta is written to be autistic-coded, i don’t believe it’s been stated anywhere that she is autistic. 

Pulling from Diregentleman again, but Orchard’s contempt here seems to be aimed at She-Ra for existing, as her favorite character on Steven Universe is reportedly Peridot, whom can also be described as an autistic-coded, ethically dubious number fetishist. 

While there is something of a point that most autistic characters in media do lean towards being mathematics savants (Mass Effect Overloard DLC, Rain Man, etc) the specificity of this complaint, and the personal insult, render any point to be derived from this nigh useless.

20: If your only black character is a volatile hyper angry brute, you’re a huge turd.

21: If the only black woman in your cast barely has any screen time except to be fetishized or its rule 20, you’re a huge turd.

What is this an attack at? Is this aimed at Star Wars? if it is, what Star Wars did you watch, because neither Finn or Lando could be described as “Hyper Angry” or “Brutes”. If this is a dig at She-Ra again, then uhhh.... there’s at least? 2 characters who are black. More than two even. 

And there are also at least two black ladies in She-Ra, if this is an attack on She-Ra. 

Like with earlier ones in this sub-set, the specificity and personal insults render it really hard to pull out the very true crumb of a salient point that is here. which is that if you only have one black character in your work and that black character is written in this highly stereotypical manner, then you need to do some self examination.

22: If the only trans woman in your cast is a Drag Queen in all but name, you’re a huge turd

Proof that Lily Orchard has never watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, and also that she has no knowledge of Drag culture at all. There are, after all, trans women who are Drag Queens: Gia Gunn, Kenya Michaels, Monica Beverly Hillz, Kylie Sonique Love, Jiggly Caliente, and more.

Of course, what Orchard likely means by “Drag Queen” is “Man in a Dress”. which is, frankly, insulting to the men, women, and nonbinary people who do wonderful artistic work in the world of Drag. However acknowledging that insult would require nuance, and social media - Twitter especially - is where nuance goes to die. 

73: The best way to avoid tokenism is multiple characters.

This point, and the fact that Orchard wrote it in as if it was something separate to the seven others that were presented at the beginning at her list, seems to prove that the other seven really were attacks at specific shows and specific characters, rather than the universal “tips” that she tried to hide them as. It also renders them all moot, because this is how you would write those earlier seven as a general writing tip: the best way to avoid stereotypical writing is to have multiple characters who could fall into a certain marginalized identity. For example,  have a group of gay men, one of whom could be described as a foppish diva, but also with many more who aren’t. or, if you do have only a single character who occupies a marginalized identity, then make sure that character is a fully realized person, and not just a quickly slapped together stereotype.

A wonderful example of this in the professionally published world i can think of of the top of my head is the “Society of Gentlemen” book series by K.J. Charles which is about a group of upper class men whom all are men who love and have sex with other men (some could be described as bisexual in modern language, but the series is set in the regency period in England). One character, Mr. Julius Norreys, is a foppish diva, primarily concerned with his clothing, and stinging others with his rapier wit, but in his own book - A Fashionable Indulgence - and the others, delve quite deeply into his character and history to show why he is how he is.    

Go read and be inspired.

[sxrrandomfanfics]

Are there any Villain characters (Canon & OC) that you find intriguing? Who and why?

Villain characters I find intriguing... hmm...

Different Properties - 8 Characters - 13

Cosma (OK K.O.) - I like the shape changing dragon. Rand Ridley (Inside Job) - HORRIBLE FATHER. Rewatching the series you know his plan and you see it happening. But still wants his big happy family. I want to jump into your brain old man. We jumped into your daughter's now it's your turn. Maligula (Psychonauts 2) - Aw, sweet little Nona. How in the world did you let yourself become the royalty your sister hated? How close were you with your sister before she drowned at your hands? How much did you love Gelsin Mux? What was your relationship with Mithra and Zalto, your parents? What did you think of your brother in law? Why do you still have so many questions surrounding you, Nona? The more we know, the more we realize such deep holes of unknowable with you and your age. You're in your seventies now, Nona. Coach Morceau "Morry/Oly" Oleander (Psychonauts) - He's my cuddle bunny. Bean bag shaped. So much of your past is known yet unknown. How much from the Li-Po is true about you? Or are you now just a surface level maniac who's being monitored? Tell me, Oly, is your family proud of you? VV Argost (Secret Saturdays) - Yeti with a God complex has such a dastardly plan. It makes me wonder why he wanted to infiltrate humanity in the first place if he hated them so much. Amelia (Infinity Train) - A woman who had a happy life and then... she lost everything. She got a chance to help herself and instead made it her life to stay on the train trying to go back to her old life, and now may never go home. Magica DeSpell (Ducktales) - Oh my goodness what a backstory, what powers, what a fall. All around turning from most intimidating villain who had a successful plan to pathetic. Toffee (Star Vs.) - Magic hating Raptor God Man deserved better. Volo (Pokemon) - God Complexes are fun. Javert (Les Miserables) - The desperation and unneeded attacks that Javert does to Jean Valjean is so shiver inducing to watch. Also I like his songs, like "The Confrontation."

Spinny (Whatever Happened to Shadowy Figure?) - Dastardly. Evil. Want to know more but all we know is what she's done to Brittney Spark and Nelly. Reaper Blanc (Hanahaki Ask AU: Unfinished Business) - He didn't always act like this, but something happened to him, and now I wonder who he was. "People's Peonies" (Family Swap) - I love the ideas of marginilized groups who are like: We have more power than these other people cause there are more of us/we have different, supernatural powers and them going to attack people. Like they have no clear goal they're just like: We're better than you. Dina [UNREVEALED STORY] - With a past shrouded and only the idea of chugging science along, Dina is a character similar to Peridot but never gets a redemption. She will go down with hope that her experiment lives on and does its job rather than see another failure. A blind follower of her superiors while also seeing herself as above, Dina is just very interesting to write.

[REDACTED] - This boy who was actually from someone helping me work on a fanfiction and not Belos from Owl House. There's literally no reason why I wouldn't just say Belos. Spoilers are off once things are revealed. No [REDACTED] is a fallen prince in a collaboration fic I'm working on and I have so many songs for this boyo. If you want to know why he's so villainous (without me spoiling the fic), just listen to "Everything At Once" by Lenka. That's essentially his entire character, both before and after his fall. [REDACTED] the fallen prince my beloved. Poor little meow meow. Needs to be thrown in the washing machine. Tar baby lookin ass. Has a tiktok where he censors the name of the "replacement brother" he hates. No Face from Spirited Away actin ass.

[faelapis]

I disagree that it’s comparable to how SU treated Bismuth. Bismuth wanted to kill one of the Diamonds murdering and oppressing everyone. Jet wanted to kill innocent civilians. He had a chance to change when he entered Ba Sing Se, but he became fixated on exposing Zuko and Iroh - from his perspective, working class refugees who he only hated when he realized they were fire benders.

so... here’s the thing. 

let’s talk about how “extremists” in media are often framed.

for one thing, they’re usually not really... “real”? they’re demonized. they give you easy versions of extremism, where they’re so cartoonishly evil you don’t have to confront their ideologies on any deeper level. in jet’s case, you just give him someone it’s Obviously Bad to Kill, problem solved, right?

not really. you’ve still condemned “the violent ones” as being “like jet”. Extremism Bad Because It Means Child Murder :( this is the same problem as in the hunger games, in which gale is also seen as going “too far” in this very facile, pathos-stripped way that it’s easy to condemn. both are still saying that violence, or at least that kind of violence, are bad, they just take it to the obvious extreme to get the audience on their side.

SU doesn’t take shortcuts like that. they give bismuth AND rose realistic motivations. that’s what i mean by saying bismuth is treated as more “real” and with pathos. your heart breaks for her. she’s treated like a perspective you UNDERSTAND. you get why she thinks the way she does - because from her perspective, there’s no reason to ever think a diamond could change. from her perspective, the CGs were working class. nobody truly “changed” so much as they “stood up”. that’s why she’s both worth listening to and considering the pros/cons within that universe. at no point does she strangle toddlers so the kiddos at home will know she’s a Bad Guy. it’s more complicated than that.

it might be implied bismuth would’ve killed more than just the diamonds - she speaks of homeworld gems “in their way” in the general sense, and we see her hit lapis from the back - but that’s a might. it asks the audience to fill in the blanks of how far they think bismuth would’ve gone. it’s not “the poor children :(”, it’s how far YOU, from the information you’ve gathered from her mindset, thinks she would actually go.

i think part of the controversy here is, indeed, because SU doens’t take that shortcut to tell you bismuth is obviously evil. she’s not. the narrative never treats her like “one-dimensionally” bad. her perspective makes sense, and steven doesn’t really have a strong answer for why they shouldn’t do things her way. heck, he admits as much in s5 - in s3, he was mostly hanging on to the divine image of rose given to him, in which she embodied what a CG “should” be.

the narrative itself gives you a few reasons in s3, but only if you pay very close attention - for one thing, lapis and jasper would likely both be dead. bismuth was an implied part of lapis’ trauma and the raid that started jasper’s life. peridots might’ve been killed, considering they’re kindergarteners. if you think that’s a worthy sacrifice, then you’re asked to think whether these characters, who you may very well personally relate to, deserve to be killed for doing their essentially god-designated job (from birth!), and being but small parts of a larger machine... which ALL gems were, at one point. including the crystal gems.

(also by killing the diamonds, the homeworld gems will hate you. that’s why steven couldn’t help jasper in “earthlings”. they will despise you rather than love you, because they are literally programmed to love their diamonds. you’ll give them the kind of collective trauma where they’re much more likely to turn against you than join you).

another thing - bismuth thinks they could’ve won, but... could they? how much of that is the desperate hope of someone who doesn’t want to consider other options? we don’t know that either. the crystal gems are but a small fraction of what they used to be. bismuth can pep people up, to the point where they emotionally identify with her cause (and become, like bismuth herself, entirely lacking in self-criticalness about that), but she can’t make them realistically confront their own numbers, or the obvious advantage of talking to people who are many more than you... 

which is why later, bismuth is strategically willing to accept that. she’s not entirely unreasonable. she cares about the end goal more than she cares about being as violent as possible. she wants steven to use his privilege when the time comes, because that’s what will help the most people. even if it hurts him.

that’s the mark of a true ideologue - being able to put your preferred method aside when the moment calls for it. anyone who thinks they’re ideologues or committed to a cause, but aren’t willing to put their means aside when it’s beneficial *FOR THAT CAUSE* are not ideologues. they’re just in it for the guns.

all in all though, the “big” thing that decides between steven and bismuth’s perspectives isn’t really what either of them say in s3. it’s in s5: the fact that ROSE, their leader, was pink diamond. this makes it very, very hard to other your enemies as these soulless monsters to defeat. you are your enemies. that’s what makes bismuth face that she can’t distance herself from either homeworld or gemkind - she’s been putting someone on a pedestal all along, she just wanted the “right one” to idolize on top. that’s what she has to face.

also, it is ROSE who built up pink diamond as the ultimate enemy to kill. time and again, rose does not understand the consequences of demonizing herself or distancing herself from people... then again, bismuth doesn’t give her much reason to - bismuth starts out thinking there are “good” gems and “bad” gems, and the only backstory rose thinks bismuth would buy is one in which she always knew the right thing to do. which nobody is born knowing.

there’s also a bunch of little things i could bring up, such as how the diamonds aren’t just killers or oppressors. they are, in equal parts, creators. they made gems “in their image”, seeking purpose and light. that’s what makes them a decent parallel to “petty gods” (and abusive parents) more than anything else. they create all of gemkind. they project outwards, through their “children”, in such a way that they feel entitled to give everyone purpose. they, themselves, were made with purpose - and had to find themselves outside of it. rose never internalized that she could truly change, but she did. time and again. but people still suffered for it. time and again. 

even now, it’s an open question whether rose did the right thing in putting bismuth away (even if you understand why both acted the way they did!)... but rose is gone now. and bismuth is still here. she can still live the liberated life she always wanted, with her friends by her side.

so yeah, i’ll take that over “jet started out okay but he’s Actually Really A Meanie Mean Who Must Die To Show Extremists Are Bad”. 

[jaegercentral]

⠀⠀⠀ “PROLOGUE”

© sakusadist, 2021, DO NOT copy or repost

selene set her phone down on the bathroom sink, rubbing her face (hands washed ofc). this is really happening, huh? she thought. walking out of the bathroom, she cleared her throat which was previously worn out from crying. selene, with her test in hand, sat on the couch, waiting and waiting and waiting for haru to come home from work. the time was 8:28PM and she had nearly fallen asleep until she heard the quiet unlocking of the front door. selene sat up and saw her boyfriend walk in, paper grocery bags in hand. “little help here?” he chuckled, seeing her focused gaze.

he snapped in front of her face to get her attention and she shuddered, nodding harshly. “yeah, of course.”

he rolled his eyes at her in a teasing way. she was always a little dazed. he found it cute.

he then looked down at the coffee table, seeing a little rectangle box wrapped in pink wrapping paper. “what’s this?” he reached to pick it up but she got to it faster. haru looked up at his beloved girlfriend and frowned. “hey? what is it?”

“it’s nothing!” selene pressed her lips together. “okay fine it’s a pregnancy test.” haru’s eyes widened to the size of an american quarter and he smiled softly.

“are you pregnant?” she nodded and he set down the groceries, pulling her into a hug, stroking her long black hair.

“what are we going to do, haru? aren’t we too young to start a family?” she sobbed into his shoulder and he patted her back.

“well, we can talk about that after i make dinner. is that good with you?” selene sniffled and mumbled a quiet ‘yes’. haru grinned and ruffled her hair. selene sat down at their small dinner table. soon they would have to add another chair. “okay. how about..i make your favorite dish?” he made jazz hands, waiting for her reaction—at least a smile.

selene looked up at him and tears filled her eyes again. the smaller man rushed over to her, pulling her into his embrace. “no no no, don’t cry. you’re okay, baby.”

haru helped her stand up, leading her over to the couch. “i’m scared, haru.” she curled up into a ball, feeling comfort in the way his arms were wrapped around her. he was her home.

“i know, i know.” he caressed her hair, kissing the crown of her head. the young couple sat still for a while, holding each other. selene stopped crying but only because haru started.

“no, you can’t start crying too! that’s my thing!” she huffed, wiping his tears.

the boy suddenly started laughing, which shocked selene. “and laughing is my thing.” she giggled and kissed the tip of his nose.

selene pressed down on her thighs and finally stood up. reaching for his hand, she sighed. “okay, let’s do this.”

haru took the girl’s hand and stood up with her. “what? make dinner?” she punched his shoulder and he feigned hurt.

“you know what i meant.” the girl rolled her eyes and yanked him towards the kitchen where they spent the next 45 minutes fixing a meal.

*six months later*

“i don’t know, tora. he’s just been pretty distant lately.” selene rested her hand on her stomach, where her bump had grown even larger.

“do you think he could be planning something? that’s why he’s been extra busy?”

“i guess? there isn’t much that kindergartners do so i don’t think he’s too busy with work.” her best friend snorted, finding her retort kinda hilarious.

“oh, well i have to go, selene. kou just texted me, asking where his phone was. ttyl!”

“yeah, thanks! bye.” she hung up, sighing heavily. selene looked down at her bump. “you’re a real pain, y’know.” she poked at it like it was some kind of jelly.

the front door of their apartment opened harshly, and selene flinched. their apartment doors were always so loud. we should probably get that fixed, she reminded herself. there stood her boyfriend, arms full of bags of candy. halloween was always his favorite holiday. selene smiled at the dorky boy who was still struggling to reach the marble island.

“i’ll get it.” she spoke, arms stretched out to reach for a bag. haru turned away from her, trying to keep her from doing any heavy lifting. “hey! let me help you!” haru thought she looked like an angry penguin when she stomped towards him.

“no! the doctor said you can’t do any heavy lifting until after you give birth!” he had set the bags on the island and selene looked at him like he was prey. her hands gripped onto the counter; she was ready to lunge at him. haru’s face as she chased him was priceless. it was a weird mixture of worry, fear, and joy. “oh shit!” he exclaimed, losing his balance as he tripped over one of the shoes she threw at him.

“i don’t care what the doctor said. i’m helping. besides, from the looks of it, the candy can’t be THAT heavy.” she tried reasoning, but when she lifted the variety bag, it tore open and spilled all over the kitchen floor. “well i guess it can, huh?”

haru, with a hand on his hip, gave selene an ‘i told you so’ look.

“you look a lot like your mother right now.” selene pointed out, painfully bending over to pick up a hershey bar that fell seconds ago.

“now that’s just sad. and wrong. she’s all old and wrinkly now.”

selene’s face went 😟 as she saw the small figure behind her boyfriend. with a mouth full of chocolate, she spoke, “babe you should shut up right about now.”

“no! i still have more to say.” selene glared him down, nearly making the poor man pee his pants. like his mother once said, if you value your life, never make a pregnant woman mad.

“who’s old and wrinkly, haruto?” his face suddenly lost all color as he heard the familiar, sickly, sweet voice from behind him. “and do tell me what else you had to say. we’ll be around for dinner so you have time.”

“oh it’s nothing.” the boy rubbed the back of his nape, a scare smile painting his face.

“right, mhm.” haru’s parents practically adopted selene after they started dating since hers were absent for most of her life. for people who are supposed to be parents, they sure stopped caring about selene after the wife finally got pregnant. “selene, darling, how are you? is the baby healthy? how many months along are you?” the aforementioned girl blinked harshly, trying to process what she asked.

“um, i’m good, so is the baby. and as of three weeks ago, i’m six months.” haru’s mom walked up to her, tucking her hair being her ears.

“poor girl. you must be in so much pain. plus, my little dweeb of a son must be making it worse.”

“oh, so much.” selene exaggerated, watching as haru frowned. he knew she was joking, but it still hurt him. he could be doing so much more for his girlfriend, but no. he’s been spending so much time trying to plan the perfect day to propose to her that he didn’t take the time to understand how she must’ve been feeling. horrible and lonely, he would’ve guessed.

“anyway, are you guys ready to go? i think it’s almost an hour until the reservation is actually valid.”

“i am, but i don’t know about haru.”

haru feigned an offended look, his hand pressed against his chest. “are you kidding me? i went to the grocery store in this suit.”

“well, haruto, don’t you know that that can cause creases and wrinkles?” his father asked, checking his watch.

her boyfriend shrugged, running his hands through his hair. “i do, but i just wanted to be extra prepared.”

“now that that’s settled, why don’t we head out?” selene offered, haru handing her her shoulder purse.

they all agreed, following after selene while haru locked up.

*45 minutes later*

as the clock hit 6:47, the group pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot, exiting the car. they were seated at a small round table, with a waitress named harlowe.

minutes passed by, they ordered, they ate, and then they left. it was now 8PM and fatigue was starting to take over selene. they waited by the entrance for their car to be driven back to them. while waiting, haru’s anxiety was kicking in. right now. do it. right. now. haru kneeled down and selene raised a brow. “are you tricking me again?”

haru shushed the girl and looked down, rethinking his words. “selene, i’ve known you for six years now and i think this has been long overdue. i’ve known you were the one for me since the moment you walked into the gym, bumping into the door, announcing your role as a new manager. and i’ve loved you ever since.” people were starting to crowd around the couple and normally, selene would’ve been scared out of her mind, but now she didn’t care because she was finally having her main character moment. “now here’s the scary part,” her boyfriend whispered. “miyasaki selene, will you be the roxanne to my max? my forever and always? will you marry me?” selene giggled at his “a goofy movie” reference and eagerly nodded, grinning like a child at disney world.

haru smiled with her, pulling her into a bear hug. he wiped her tears that were unbeknownst to her and declared his love to her as he slipped the peridot ring on her finger. “you remembered?”

“i remembered.” back when they were in high school, selene begged him that when, not if, they got engaged, he would give her a peridot ring instead of a diamond ring. she always believed that worth was subjective and haru knew how much she loved her birthstone, so he got the ring custom made.

“you’re perfect.” she exclaimed, basking in the attention they were receiving from the bystanders.

*three months later*

“haru, you asshole! if you don’t show up within the next 10 minutes, i’m divorcing you.”

“don’t worry, babe. i’m right around the corner!”

“don’t ‘babe’ me, just show up!” she violently screamed into her phone. the bloodlust was practically oozing out of her and if her fiancé didn’t walk faster than 2mph, she would make sure that he would never see the child that she was on the verge of giving birth to.

the door slammed open, and there stood her fiancé. it felt like déjà vù but selene was NOT in the mood. she just wanted the pain of being in labor to end.

after around 27 minutes of pushing, screaming, and selene cursing her fiancé in her head, the baby popped out of her. “it’s a boy!” the overly cheerful doctor exclaimed.

“well no shit, we saw in the ultrasound.” selene retorted, finally able to breathe again.

“i apologize for her.” haru smiled at the doctor who looked like she was about to start crying. as soon as they cut the umbilical cord and did whatever they do to newborns, they gave selene her baby, afraid she was going to snap at them again.

selene and her boys slept on that very hospital bed for the night, relieved. her baby was healthy and the love of her life was there to see. he was definitely happy that selene wouldn’t divorce him. they weren’t even married yet!

*two months later*

“bye, haru!”

selene kissed him on the cheek and haru kissed her and hikaru back. “bye, selene! bye, hikaru!” he waved and closed the door, going off to the school.

“why don’t we go on a walk to the park? well, i’ll be walking and hauling your cute little ass around, but it’ll be fun!” she claimed, clapping her hands together.

selene gathered all of hikaru’s baby food, diapers, clothing etc. and put it in the baby bag in his fancy, new stroller that his grandparents bought him. changing into some leggings and a graphic tee, selene and hikaru left the apartment, and went off to the park.

it was half way into their walk that selene received a call from an unknown number. “hello?”

“hi, we are here to inform you that your fiancé has been involved in a car accident, caused by a drunk driver.” selene covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall. seeing his mother cry, hikaru started wailing loudly. “ma’am? are you there?”

the, now, widowed mother regained her composure. “may i ask which hospital he’s at?”

“highland hospital, miss.”

“thank you, have a nice day.” selene placed her phone back in her pocket and sprinted in the direction of her car.

[at the hospital]

selene, holding hikaru on her hip, paced back and forth around the room, waiting for news.

suddenly the door opened, revealing the man’s parents. their eyes watered at the sight and his mother ran over to embrace the poor girl. his father took a seat at the bench and sobbed quietly into his hands.

haru’s right arm and leg were severely broken and he would’ve definitely been required to have surgery. across his face and shoulder were extremely long wounds that were still bleeding. he didn’t look like your fiancé anymore.

hikaru was still confused about what was going on, for he was looking around the room, watery eyed, for his father. he couldn’t recognize the man on the bed, which added to the sadness.

within a fraction of a second, the machine that was taking and recording his vitals started beeping and doctors started rushing in, pushing everyone else out. now, there she was. sitting outside of the icu room, she hugged hikaru tightly and prayed to whichever god was present to save her fiancé. she couldn’t lose him. not yet.

but death is natural. and although it takes some too early or too late, for the right or wrong reasons, it’s still natural and destined to happen some day.

and that’s when she received the news. “miss, we’re sorry to inform you that the patient has unfortunately passed away. we give our condolences.” suddenly, every single noise in the hospital drowned out and everything went black.

“hey! we need a doctor over here. my daughter-in-law has collapsed!” was the last thing she heard before losing consciousness.

*a day later*

the light was blinding and coming back way too fast for selene’s liking. she searched the room for her family. not even hikaru was present. only the doctor. “w-what happened?”

“oh, good. you’re awake. apparently, you went into shock and collapsed in the middle of the hallway after hearing the news of your fiancé dying.” she was suddenly reminded of the news as her eyes glossed over. she let out a small ‘oh’ at the thought and cleared her throat. another doctor burst in and yanked the man aside.

“gee, aaron, who kicked your dog today?”

“aaron?” selene looked at the man again and looked for any familiar features.

“that’s dr. aaron to you.” she fiddled with the blanket which was uncomfortably thin. the female doctor ordered him to leave the room and sat by her side.

“sorry about him. he’s not good at interacting with anything but his body pillow of ariana grande.” selene grimaced at the thought and she laughed.

“it's fine. everyone has their flaws, i guess. do you happen to know where my son is?”

“oh, hikaru? what an adorable little boy. he’s in the waiting room with his grandparents.” she caressed selene’s arm. “my name is zoey, in case you were wondering.”

“thank you, zoey—i-sorry, dr. zoey.” zoey shook her head and laughed.

“don’t worry, i’m not like that uptight little shit named aaron. you can just call me zoey.” she beamed at selene, showing her gummy smile. she was about to leave, but quickly turned around and snapped and pointed at her. “right! i came in here to tell you that you’re okay to be discharged right about now.”

“thank you, again, zoey. you’ve been a great help!” she nodded as a ‘thanks’ and left the room. selene went back to fiddling with her blanket. he can’t really be gone, can he? i mean, it all happened so fast.

it took her a while to finally come to terms with the harsh truth that her fiancé was dead and she would never see him again. the next couple months would be the hardest, despite what she thought.

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A/N: ngl, i kinda sobbed when i wrote this. and OMG :0 this chapter is 2,578 words long- that’s like the longest thing i’ve ever written without any guidance or prompt. so congrats to me! and i promise that this is the longest the actual word by word text will be in this fic. i’m too tired to write any more stuff so 👍

[idkwhoiamanymorebutwtf]

Peridot Understands Steven

I’ve been drawing parallels between the two characters for a long time. They’re both, on the surface, very cheerful characters, who tend to cover up negative emotions for the sake of other’s and are usually pretty selfless. If ya’ll somehow didn’t catch that part of Peri’s personality, literally search her name on my blog, I have tons of rants about it.

However, one scene in the episode In Dreams caught my attention

And that’s this one.

THIS is the moment right before Peridot wakes him up. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these lines are what got her to take action because it’s a sentiment she can relate to a lot, honestly.

They share a lot of traits, a lot of feelings, but the fact that he was here pleading with her not to leave him...I can see why it’d make her feel horribly guilty. 

She’s been there, hasn’t she? Being afraid to tell somebody how you feel? Letting it all build up? Begging them to stay with you? It must be awfully familiar to her, and that’s why she woke him up.

Because unlike what happened in her situation, Peridot is NOT going to leave Steven. And unlike what happened when she confessed these feelings, Peridot is NOT going to blame Steven for not speaking up sooner, she is going to hug him and tell him that it’s okay! If he doesn’t want to do everything she wants to do that’s okay! If he doesn’t fix every problem that comes in her life that’s okay! It’s enough that he cares about her and that he wants her around. It’s enough. He is enough and she’s not going to leave him and she’s not going to make him feel like anything he’s feeling is his fault. Not his compulsion to help other’s, not his reluctance to speak out about it, not the way he let it get as far as it did. Peridot didn’t make it seem like a single part of it was his fault.

She came to him- tears in her eyes, which just shows how distressed she was- and she pulls him into a hug, and she tells him it’s okay, he doesn’t have to do it anymore, she doesn’t care about the show, she just loves him, she just wants to spend time with him for who he is. And most importantly, there’s absolutely no blame placed on Steven for being afraid to talk about it earlier. She doesn’t tell him it’s his fault, if anything she seems apologetic for not making more of an effort into making sure he was okay.

Remember when Peridot was like “I’m afraid to talk to me because you have unpredictable emotions and I feel the need to walk on eggshells around you to keep you happy because i’m terrified of upsetting people since I have an unhealthy feeling of obligation to be agreeable and positive so I don’t annoy or upset those around me because I care about their emotions more than my own and if i’m bottling up by feelings so be it as long as everyone still loves and needs me, but this is a situation where I can’t rely on that strategy because this is too important to me to sacrifice for you and it still took me so long to work up the nerve to even say this much?” (not in those many words but the subtext is there tbh). And Lapis basically found every way to blame Peridot for the situation instead of realizing that Peri was the victim in a situation where she was walking on eggshells and ignoring her emotions just to keep lapis happy with her? Not only is blaming Peridot clearly a poor move here due to the emotional stress, but Lapis’ points aren’t even really valid since Peridot didn’t have time to tell her earlier (Peri was arguing that they should stay, Pumpkin went missing and that was their priority, and then Peri told Lapis they should stay, idk what Lapis means ‘why didn’t you tell me sooner?’, and even if Peridot had told her last minute and had plenty of other chances, lapis only told her they were leaving like three seconds before she tried to fly them away. And i’m not just pointing this out to hate on Lapis. This is just a clear example of the blame being shifted onto Peridot in a way that minimized her own emotional pain and switched the focus onto Lapis. After Lapis decided to get angry and Peri for ‘lying’ to her, the whole conversation switched from being focused on how Peridot is walking on eggshells around Lapis to Peridot having to defend her stance as if she’s the one in the wrong who has to explain herself.

And I think it’s so important that Peridot didn’t do this to Steven. She didn’t even try, she just hugged and comforted him because it’s not his fault. Peridot and Steven have both been in very similar situations, and Peri gave him more than she had, and I love her for it.

[moscnios]

                                             THE FOUNTAIN ━ﾞ

⁺◟   CHARACTERS . . .           caesar zeppeli           fem!reader           mentions of lisa lisa ‘ joseph

⁺◟   GENRE . . .           angst           fluff           oneshot

⁺◟  SYNOPSIS . . .           there was one special marble           fountain in naples that had           brought two people together.           even in tragedy, it serves as           their meeting place.

⁺◟  CONTENT WARNINGS . . .           mentions of death

⁺◟  WORD COUNT . . .           2.2k.

⁺◟  COMMENTARY . . .           i don’t know why i do this to           myself. i cried a total of five           times writing this. it’s not even           that sad, i’m just soft for caesar           because he’s my favorite and           he deserved better.

          ( s/n ) ‘ son’s name

Lonesome she sat on the edge of the marble fountain, her shaking hands rested in her lap, comforted by the warm fabric of the dress she wore. Her head sat just below her shoulders, as tears had begun to form in her eyes.

The lonesome woman, ( y/n ), had a history with this fountain. She had remembered the first day it began working.

She was a poor teenager, walking up and down the sidewalks for any coin she could find, many purse or wallet she could snatch to grab a few banknotes and give them to her family. Though a petty thief, her heart was in the right place.

That day it was no different. The young thief watched a young brunette many years older than her. By his clothes alone, she knew he was pretty well off. Without another thought, she had rushed out in front of him, tripping over her own feet to fall before his.

She had done it many times before. No one could ignore a poor maiden who had fallen, neither could the brunette. He helped her up and asked if she was okay. She had answered yes and hugging him for helping her, allowing her to slip her hand into his pocket and pull out a leather wallet, and hiding it up the sleep of her dress, before leaving. 

But she was not in the clear, a bystander had watched the whole thing.

Before the young thief could get away, the bystander had spoken up, alerting the young man that ( y/n ) had reached into his back pocket and stolen his wallet.

Even before the bystander had finished their statement, she had run, being followed closely behind by the man she had robbed. But she was not fast enough and he had caught up, slamming her much smaller frame against a brick wall, almost knocking the wind out of her. She begged for forgiveness in small barely audible whimpers, as he screamed in her face.

Meters away from them stood a tall blonde with green eyes. On either side of his face, were purple birthmarks that vaguely resembled triangles. She’ll never forget the first words out of his mouth.

“Never put your hands a woman.”

The man didn’t need to be told twice, quickly dropping ( y/n ) to the hard concrete ground, and running away in fear. As he stepped further into the light, she had recognized him.

Caesar Zeppeli from Naples. The blonde-haired thug and the prettiest peridot-colored eyes. Widely feared, because he committed every crime imaginable short of murder.

She stared into his peridot-colored eyes, shaking uncontrollably as he approached her, putting out his hand for her to take. She looked down at his rather large hand, before slowly up his arm and torso up to his face. He had fully come into the light. 

He was breathtakingly beautiful. 

Not only had his face softened but his voice did as well, sending chills down her spine. She simply stared at his hand, hoping he would take the hint that she truly feared him just as anyone else had. And he did take the hint, as he retracted his hand back to his side and left her on the concrete, bidding her a farewell and hope that they will meet once more on better terms.

And they had. Days later, she sat on the edge of the same fountain and she had seen his head of blonde hair walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of her. Her face began to burn up as his eyes met her unintentionally. Instead of looking away, she kept her eyes on him. 

His feet changed course, now approaching her. Though fear welled inside of her, she stayed put, wanting to give him a chance. The only thought in her mind being that he wouldn’t harm her because she was a woman and because he had saved her days prior.

Bringing her out of her thoughts, the blonde took her hand into his own, kissing it gently, “We meet again, mia cara.”

( y/n ), like several other women, became easily swooned by Caesar. He had it all, the looks, the charms, the personality. He was everything a woman could want and more. Yet he focused most of his attention a petty thief. 

Always having to see her face each night before he retired to his bed. Always needing to hear her soothing voice say his name or bid him a good night and sweet dreams. She had become the only woman he could think about. No, the only person he could think about. With her, he knew he could tell her anything and she would listen and be completely honest with her.

Alongside the death of his father, ( y/n ) was a driving reason why he had left behind his criminal past for something better.

The night before he left for Venice, he met with her at the marble fountain, where he had confessed his eternal love for her and asked her to come with him so they would never have to be without each other. Without another thought, she accepted both his love confession and his invitation to come with him to Rome.

Along the way, she had learned of the weird power that Caesar had, Hamon. She learned more about it from the woman the two had met in Venice.

Lisa Lisa.

As Caesar began training under Lisa Lisa, ( y/n ) worried for him. She worried that something would happen to him and she would lose him. She couldn’t just stick around and watch him die any day now, she had returned to Naples, being followed by the blonde.

There they stood at the fountain once again. Their special fountain, as Caesar called it. 

There he tried his best to reassure her that nothing would happen to him and he had promised that he would return to her in due time. The couple had spent one last night together before the blonde had returned to Rome the next morning without her. But she held onto her hope and waited for him in Naples.

Each day she sat on the edge of their marble fountain, hoping that today would be the day that he would come back to her, hold her and tell her that he loves her.

He never came back to her.

He never came home.

But it never crossed her mind of his fate until a slender woman had approached her. Lisa Lisa. She sat next to her on the fountain, sorrow in her eyes. Why wasn’t Caesar with her? Why did she come alone?

She didn’t have to say a word.

“But...but he promised me. HE PROMISED! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAVE HIM?!”

She cried his name as loud as she could until her voice went hoarse. 

No...he couldn’t be dead. This was a nightmare that should wake up from. But she was awake. He was gone, he wasn’t coming back to her, he couldn’t keep his promise that he made to her.

His funeral was even harder for her, barely anyone had shown. She barely talked to the others there, only wanting to be dead alongside the man she had loved with all of her heart. She silently cried until she couldn’t anymore, no longer having a voice to scream his name. 

( y/n ) was broken and just about anyone could see that.

She didn’t want to be comforted. She didn’t want empty apologies and condolences, she wanted the love of her life back and none of them could give her that.

Days at a time, she would cry at the fountain, hoping that her Caesar heard her cries for him. She swore sometimes she could feel a cold wind brush past her when she called out for him.

There she promised him that she would never open her heart for another. 

But that was a promise she could not keep many months later.

“Mamma!”

The lonesome woman picked her head up, looking to her right to see a small boy no older than 8 years old with a head of blonde hair and peridot-colored eyes that reminded her of him. On the left side of his side, he had a small oddly colored birthmark that looked similar to Caesar’s.

In the boy’s left hand were a bouquet of sunflowers wrapped neatly with an orange bow. Caesar’s favorites.

A small smile formed on ( y/n )’s face, as she looked at the boy.

( s/n ), her son, the last thing she had of Caesar. The small blonde child, ran over to his mother, hugging her tightly, “Mamma, you promised you wouldn’t cry.”

“I know, I know. It’s...it’s just hard.”

“You always cry on Papa’s birthday,” The young boy mentioned, wiping away the stray tears from his mother’s face with his free hand, “Do we need to stop for a second or can we go to Papa’s grave now?”

She pressed a gentle kiss to her son’s forehead, standing up, “We can go now. I’ve been meaning to speak to Caesar.” The young boy took his mother’s shaking hand into his own, hoping to calm her. He looked up at her, with those peridot eyes of his, giving her a sense of comfort.

The young boy and his mother walked to the nearby graveyard, stopping in front of a familiar grave. 

Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli, the stone read.

Silence sounded between the mother and son, unsure of what to say now. ( s/n ) had slowly let go of his mother’s hand, stepping closer to his father’s grave, placing the bouquet of sunflowers on top of it, “Papa, Mamma and I doing okay. It just lonely sometimes and she still feels sad that you’re gone but I do my best to comfort her and protect her just like you used to. I sometimes feel sad that I never got to meet you and I won’t get to grow up with you but then I remember all the cool stories Uncle Jojo told me about you and your cool power! And Uncle Jojo told me that you saved him and I want to grow up to be just like you.”

The young boy sat next to the stone, continuing to talk while his mother had watched in both admiration and sadness. Her heart ached at the sight. That thought running through her head, ‘I should have stopped him that night. He would still be here if I would have stopped him!’

“Mamma!”

The woman was shaken out of her thoughts, she looked to her smiling son, “Yes, ( s/n )?”

“You said you wanted to talk to Papa so I’m going to give you guys some alone time. If you need me, I’ll be at the entrance.”

The woman nodded, as the boy climbed back up to his feet bidding the stone a goodbye, “I’ll see you soon, Papa. I love you. Wait for me and Mamma, okay?” The boy skipped toward the entrance of the graveyard, leaving his mother and the stone.

She kneeled before the grave, putting her hands on her knees, “Caesar...I know I come and say the same thing every year but...I miss you, now more than ever. Having ( s/n ) in the house, it’s like seeing a small young. He looks so much like you. Lisa Lisa said that he looks so much like you because I missed you so much while I was pregnant. I’m not sure if I believe that. I know I’ve asked you all these years now for a sign to show me that you are here and that you are listening but I need to know if you are really still there.”

She was met with silence, a sad expression formed on her face as her head slowly began to fall but she stopped seeing something out of the corner of her eye.

A lonesome bubble.

She looked around to see if there was anyone around blowing bubbles, but there was no one. She looked back to the bubble, watching it float just above Caesar’s grave.

The sign.

A cool breeze flew past her, taking the bubble away. She climbed back to her feet, following the lonesome bubble. ( s/n ) watched his mother follow the bubble in confusion, “Mamma, what are you―” The boy stopped as his eyes widened seeing a tall translucent figure with a head of blonde hair just like his, following behind his mother. Wrapped around the figure’s head was a familiar thin headband, giving the young boy a sense of familiarity.

He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly, opening them once more to see the figure was now gone. “Am I seeing things?”

His mother on the other hand had still followed the bubble, back to the marble fountain. She reached up to touch the bubble, feeling another cool breeze pass her by, this time she felt something wrap around her.

“Are you there, Caesar?”

Though she could not see, there before her was the spirit of the man she had loved with all of her heart. One of his arms was wrapped around her waist, his free hand was in her hand that had reached to touch the bubble.

“I never left, mia cara.”

⁺◟   BACK TO NAVIGATION . . .

[writethehousedown]

Trust Fund, Gold Tongue (Crygi) 1/7 - Peridot

A/N: I am so excited to be taking part in the Summer Lovin’ fic challenge! This is going to be my first multichap ever, so bare with me!! I’ve enjoyed working on this for ages now, and I’m so excited to share it with you all. You can find me at my sideblog @artificialperidot, come say hi!!

Summary: Crystal hates her summer job in a country club, until she falls oh so hard for the sweet-talking millionaire daughter of the owner. Gigi would rather not spend her summer with her dysfunctional family, but a certain red headed waitress proves to be a welcome distraction.

They would both rather be anywhere else, but perhaps their summer won’t be as bad as it seems.

Hope you enjoy!!

Crystal could think of a hundred things she’d rather be doing this summer than working in a country club full of wealthy pricks. But the wage was decent, and God knows her rent wasn’t going to pay itself.

Walking into the resort for the first time had been like walking into another dimension, a complete other world from the life she knew, where there was no such thing as “too expensive”. It was like getting a glimpse into the other side of the world, of affluence that she could have never comprehended unless she had seen it with her own eyes. The complex was huge, spanning acres upon acres of land, and lavishly decorated - the front lobby had a fountain, for Christ’s sake.

Crystal thought it looked like something from MTV Cribs. On crack.

Not only was the place huge, but it had more facilities than Crystal could’ve even imagined - a golf course, a bowling alley, tennis courts, a spa, and countless swimming pools and hot tubs, some of which Crystal had yet to find on her first week on the job. Not to mention the private restaurants and numerous bars, which, as a waitress, she most often found herself working in.

So far, Crystal had learned two things in her first week working at the country club. Number one, for having such expensive taste, rich old white men liked drinking really cheap beer. And number two, despite the beer being cheap, they would do anything they could to avoid paying for it.

Crystal leaned against her beer cart and did her very best to ignore the sound of a 50-something year old country club member (who was much too loud and much too drunk for 11am on a Tuesday) babbling something about Crystal bringing him the wrong drink - that he ordered a Budweiser and not a Heineken - in an attempt to get another free pint. Crystal didn’t say a word, only nodding now and again to seem like she was listening. She was absolutely certain the guy was lying through his teeth. She specifically remembered writing down the man’s order, and double checking to make sure she had got it right. But she’d quickly learned to keep her mouth shut, because the people she was dealing with had enough money and enough influence to get her fired in an instant, and that simply was not an option for her.

She learnt that the customer is always right, even if the customer’s nose has grown five inches and their pants have set on fire.

Heaving a sigh, she mumbled out a “sorry about that, sir, I’ll get you another one on the house” through gritted teeth, before lifting all the empty glasses from the poolside table and balancing the man’s pint (which was about two thirds empty, despite it supposedly being ‘the wrong drink’) , precariously on her cart. If she had an ounce more courage, she would’ve challenged him, told him that he and his mates that had tried the same trick on her before weren’t fooling anyone, but she decided she’d leave her complaining for Jan’s ears when they were on lunch break.

She found their reluctance to pay surprising, really, since they had more money than she could even imagine. They had more money than she’d probably earn in her whole life. But, she supposed that’s how they all stayed so rich - by being cheap bastards.

She started wheeling the trolley back towards the bar indoors, hoping the guy didn’t pay much attention to the scowl that had crept its way onto her face. She decided to take the long way back, going around the pool rather than passing by his table again, which gave her a little time to cool off before she had to go inside and tell Jan or whoever was bartending to pour his beer down the sink.

She was tempted to hide round a corner and down the beer when no one was looking, because fuck, she needed a drink right about now.

Crystal found it funny that little things like that bothered her so much. She was fully aware that there were far worse things a person could do - she herself had done things that were way worse than telling a little white lie to get a free drink. But seeing it happen every day for the past week had really rubbed her the wrong way. Sure, in her last job as a waitress in a café she had encountered similar situations, but this felt different. It was different because she knew these people had the money, that they would have no trouble paying a few dollars out of their millions, and that they were stealing for the hell of it. Thinking about it made her want to scream.

Crystal wasn’t poor, per say. She wasn’t rich by any means, but her family had enough money to get by most of the time. It was only now that she was moving out for college at the end of the summer that she was in real need of some cash for her rent and her student loans. But knowing that people slave away for hours in dead end jobs just to make ends meet, and these millionaires wouldn’t pay for a fucking beer? It made her blood boil.

Although she felt like steam was coming out of her ears, she took a few deep breaths to calm herself and keep her cool. She was still working, after all. She found herself staring into the pool water as she rolled the cart along, watching as the sun’s reflection danced on its surface, glimmering. She was thankful for the hot weather, at least. The sunshine lightened everyone’s mood a little, and usually made her job a bit easier.

She considered it a small victory.

“Excuse me, miss?” a woman’s voice called out.

Snapping out of her daydream, Crystal swivelled round in search of the source of the voice. The poolside was fairly empty given the time of day (because let’s face it, if Crystal wasn’t working, she wouldn’t have been awake at 11am, either), so it didn’t take her long to see a girl, lying on one of the sun loungers, seemingly on her own and sticking out like a sore thumb from the older men in golfing gear.

She was young, Crystal thought, probably about the same age as herself or a little younger, and she donned a floppy sun hat and a pair of oversized cat-eye sunglasses, which left Crystal slightly unsure in what direction she was looking, or if she even had her eyes open at all. Her long, dark hair sat in waves down to her chest, and she just so happened to be wearing a very flattering and clearly very expensive bathing suit - a black halter neck bikini, with gold buckles - which left little to the imagination.

She looked like the dictionary definition of a rich girl, and Crystal would’ve rolled her eyes at how cliché she looked if she wasn’t so god damn hot.

“Um, hello?” the girl asked.

Crystal’s heart jolted. “Huh? Oh! Uh, how can I help you?” She jumped to attention, and was now suddenly very aware of her cheeks flushing red. How long had she been staring?

“Could I get another pink lemonade, please?” the girl said as if it was obvious, holding out her empty glass for Crystal to take.

“Oh, sure,” Crystal replied, making her way over to her sunlounger and feeling the heat rush to her face. When she grabbed the glass, Crystal could’ve swore she felt their hands touch for just a millisecond, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t feel a little flustered.

“Thanks,” the girl said, offering Crystal a small smile from behind her huge sunglasses.

A smile of pity, probably, Crystal thought.

She quickly placed the glass onto her cart and began rolling it away as fast as she deemed socially acceptable, speed-walking her way towards the bar. She bit the inside of her cheek and inwardly cursed herself for being so awkward. What was that? Who was that? And why the hell was she having heart palpitations?

She was practically out of breath by the time she reached the bar, which was located just inside a set of double doors, right by the pool. She set the glasses on the bar top, leaning on it in an attempt to steady herself and taking a few seconds to catch her breath. When she looked up, she was met by a smirking Jan, who had a single eyebrow raised.

“Care to tell me why you’re as red as a tomato?”

“Fuck you,” Crystal sighed, a smile breaking onto her face. “It’s warm outside, that’s all.”

Jan raised a single eyebrow. “Whatever you say,” she chirped, clearly not believing her. As much as Crystal wanted to elbow her in the ribs at that, she couldn’t help but smile. One of the few good things to come out of this job was her friendship with Jan and the other staff, which was new, but already felt strong. Jan was the human equivalent of a golden retriever- it was hard not to love her.

“Hey, I need a pink lemonade and a Budweiser beer for customers outside.”

“Another beer? This one’s not finished,” Jan said, gesturing to the pint glass Crystal had placed on the bar top before her.

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Apparently it’s the wrong brand.”

“Ugh. Another one of those guys. I hope he didn’t give you a hard time, sweetie,” she said, shaking her head with a sympathetic smile. “I’ll get the drinks for you now.”

“Thanks, Jan.”

As Jan busied herself with pulling another pint, Crystal could help but peer out through the door at the girl, still laid out on her sun lounger by the pool. She couldn’t deny she was gorgeous, but she wasn’t sure why her heart decided to try to escape her chest at the sight of her, especially seeing half of her face was hidden by those huge sunglasses and that floppy hat. It was probably that damn swimsuit, she thought.

Jan’s voice interrupted her train of thought. “I presume the pink lemonade’s for miss Goode? It’s her usual. I’ll put it on her tab.”

Crystal was quickly brought back to attention. “Who’s miss Goode?” she asked, trying not to seem too curious.

“Probably one of the richest teenagers in this hemisphere,” Jan scoffed.

Crystal gulped. “Oh, really?”

“Mmhm. Her dad’s a multimillionaire, he’s the CEO of some software company,” she said, not looking up from her task of refilling drinks. “He owns this whole country club. The Goode’s always spend their summer here.”

Crystal’s eyes widened. She knew that the girl would be rich, but she didn’t think she would be that rich. She was suddenly very intimidated, but she somehow wasn’t surprised. This ‘miss Goode’ looked like a million dollars, and apparently she was worth even more. One thing was for certain, though - any feelings she possibly could’ve had towards her had to be squashed, immediately.

“She’s not a bad kid, though,” Jan continued. “I kinda feel bad for her sometimes.”

“Why’s that?”

Before Jan could answer, their workmate Heidi swept through from the kitchen, carrying a stack of trays in one hand and a towel in the other, and took her place behind the bar with Jan. “Oh please, there’s nothing to feel bad for. She’s a bazillionaire, she’ll probably never work a day in her life!” she exclaimed, clearly having overheard their conversation. “If I was that rich, I’d be living it up in a mansion with all my rich friends and buying loads of cars and having parties every night. But, ya know. Poverty,” she said, laughing at her own joke immediately after.

Crystal found herself chuckling along and automatically agreeing with Heidi - she was sure that money like that would solve all of her problems. But she was reluctant to say so, and she wasn’t quite sure why.

“You’d better not keep her waiting, Crystal,” Jan prompted, handing over the fresh pint of beer and a tall glass of pink lemonade, which had a pink straw and crushed ice and a strawberry and slice of lemon on the rim. Crystal thought that it should have one of those mini cocktail umbrellas too, but she supposed that would’ve been a little overkill.

Gently balancing the drinks on her cart, she nodded in thanks to the girls, promising to meet them on their lunch break, and started wheeling it out the double doors, back towards the pool and the sun loungers.

Back towards miss Goode.

She wasn’t entirely sure that the colour of her face had settled by now, but she hoped that she wouldn’t be able to tell from behind her sunglasses. She told herself the nerves that were building in her chest were because of this girl’s social status, and definitely not because she was pretty. Definitely not. That didn’t even cross Crystal’s mind. She didn’t even need to tell herself that looking at a customer like that was a bad idea, and that miss Goode was probably straight, and that she’d never think twice about dating an employee. No, of course not. That would be stupid.

As she walked ever closer, Crystal was psyching herself up, telling herself to stop being an awkward mess and just be cool. Act natural. All she had to do was hand her the glass without making it too obvious that she was nervous. Easy. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (And, avoid staring at her in that bathing suit, which was significantly less easy peasy lemon squeezy).

Before she knew it, she was a couple steps away from her. This was it. Just hand her the drink and get out of there. She could do this.

The girl turned to face Crystal when she saw her coming, offering her a smile. And then, she reached up and took off her sunglasses. And Crystal got a glimpse of her eyes for the first time. They were a piercing icy blue, and they twinkled in the sunshine, and Crystal didn’t want to take her eyes off of them.

Crystal fumbled on her cart and grabbed a glass, handing it to Gigi, not wanting to break eye contact for a second. She may have only been holding eye contact for a few seconds, but Crystal was captivated, swimming in her gaze.

And then, the girl looked downwards, and her face fell, and for just a second, Crystal’s heart dropped. Her brows furrowed. She looked confused.

And then Crystal realised she hadn’t handed the girl her pink lemonade, but the pint of beer.

Crap.

“Usually I get ID’d before someone serves me alcohol,” the girl said with a cocky smirk.

“Oh, uh, sorry!”

Crystal felt the heat rushing to her cheeks as she fumbled to fix her mistake, practically shoving the pink drink in her free hand as panic caught in her throat. She had one job. One simple job. She snatched the pint glass away from her with shaky hands.

And then, she dropped it.

“Shit!”

The glass miraculously didn’t smash, but its contents were spilt all over the poolside tiles.

This was all she needed.

Crystal sighed, just desolately staring at her reflection at the puddle of beer for a few seconds as an overwhelming feeling of for fuck’s sake overtook her. She groaned, flailing her arms like a toddler throwing a tantrum. She heard the girl beside her start to chuckle with that stupid cocky smirk still plastered on her face, perching on the edge of the sun lounger and looking up at Crystal.

“You know, someone should really clean that up,” she said, flashing Crystal a grin. “It’s a slipping hazard.”

Crystal rolled her eyes. “We’re by a pool, everywhere’s a slipping hazard,” she said, but she fumbled for the towel that she had tucked into her apron pocket anyways, kneeling down to wipe it up.

The girl giggled at that, leaning back against her chair with her crossed legs outstretched before her (which Crystal definitely didn’t find herself staring at). “You didn’t strike me as the type to talk back, but I’m pleasantly surprised,” she said, taking an obnoxiously loud slurp through her pink bendy straw.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Most of the staff here are no fun. I think they’re all afraid I’m gonna get them fired or something,” she said with a shrug. “You seem fun though.”

Crystal felt herself blush, but this time she wasn’t embarrassed. She was smiling. “Well, God didn’t give me this incredible personality to be quiet.”

The girl laughed, tucking a lock of her dark chocolate brown hair behind her ear. Crystal couldn’t help but take notice of the way she stuck her tongue out just a little as she giggled, and it made her smile, too. She giggled like a little girl, and it seemed like such a contrast to her effortless chic-ness. Crystal found it endearing. And very cute.

“I haven’t seen you around here before, have I?” the girl said. Her eyes scanned Crystal’s face, and Crystal tried to focus on wiping up the spilt drink because she was sure that if she caught another glance at the girl’s doll eyes looking directly at her, her brain would start shutting down.

“I don’t think so,” Crystal replied. “I only started here about a week ago.”

“I thought so,” the girl hummed, before taking another sip from her glass. “I think I would’ve remembered you.”

Crystal could’ve swallowed her own tongue at that. Instead she clenched her jaw and continued cleaning, keeping her lips firmly shut to make sure she didn’t say something stupid.

“So what’s your name then?”

“Crystal,”

“Nice to meet you, Crystal,” the girl said with a quick raise of her eyebrows.

“Nice to meet you too, uh-.”

“Gigi,” the girl said with a smile.

“Gigi,” Crystal replied, seeing how her name felt on her tongue, and recalling the name Jan had mentioned earlier. Gigi Goode. It felt right, she thought. It suited her. It definitely seemed like a rich girl name, and as far as rich girls came, this girl was supposedly in a league of her own. Though Crystal tried not to think about that - her massive sunglasses and her perfect model body were already intimidating enough.

Not that Crystal was thinking about her body or anything. Especially not about how good it looked in that pretty swimsuit.

Of course not.

Once she had the beer all mopped up, Crystal tossed the soaked towel over her shoulder, picking up the desolate pint glass from the ground and placing it on her beer cart, still in awe of how it didn’t smash on the outdoor tiles. She supposed the universe had felt bad for her - she’d had quite enough beer issues for today, and the last thing she needed was broken glass to deal with, too.

The knowledge that she’d have to go back for yet another beer for that lying bastard, though, made her want to throw the glass at a brick wall.

She felt frustration build up in her chest at the thought, and sighed. Perhaps a little too loudly, though, as Gigi seemed to pick up in it.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Ugh, I just have to go get this annoying guy another beer now,” Crystal replied with a roll of her eyes.

“How is he annoying?”

Crystal probably shouldn’t be saying this to the daughter of the country club owner, but fuck it, she needed to vent. “There’s a group of them, actually. They always yell at me and pretend I got their order wrong so they can get another free beer. I know it’s not that bad, but it just rubs me the wrong way.”

Crystal looked at Gigi, whose face had changed to one of shock and anger, her mouth hanging open slightly and her eyebrows furrowed. She stayed silent for a second, before standing up from her sun lounger, scanning the pool area. “Who was it?”

“That guy over there, in the blue polo shirt,” Crystal said, gesturing towards him.

Gigi nodded, her eyes narrowing. Crystal saw her clutch her glass tightly, her knuckles turning white. “Oh. Him,” she said, her voice stoic. “I know him. Well, I guess I won’t be needing the rest of my drink!” she said, and with that, she was off, quickly marching to the spot where the man stood.

Before Crystal had time to comprehend what was happening, Gigi was face to face with the man, and Crystal was frozen in her spot, her feet stuck to the ground a few meters away from them.

She heard Gigi’s voice yell something, and then she was throwing her pink lemonade in the man’s face.

He was drenched, and Crystal had to cover her mouth to suppress her laughter.

Crystal half expected the now dripping man to start yelling, screaming at Gigi like he had screamed at her. But instead he remained silent, not looking angry, but more at a loss for words, before he trudged off grumpily, presumably to get changed.

When her eyes darted away from the man, Gigi was nowhere to be seen. But even so, she still found herself grinning like a fool.

And, when her manager called her to clean up the spilt pink lemonade by the pool, she was more than happy to oblige.

[demyxdancer]

Lapidot for Professionals - Yarn Singularity

The prompt: sweater weather

PERI5XG: LAPIS

PERI5XG: LAPIS LAPIS LAPIS LAPIS LAPIS

PERI5XG: I NEED HELP

PERI5XG: IT’S AN EMERGENCY

bob: a real emergency or a peridot emergency

PERI5XG: KIND OF BOTH

PERI5XG: WE’RE TRAPPED IN THE LAIR

PERI5XG: HOW FAST CAN YOU GET HERE

bob: pretty fast, i’m just in the morp studio

bob: but why are you trapped in the lair

bob: and who’s “we”

PERI5XG: GREAT

PERI5XG: YOU SHOULD BRING SOMETHING SHARP

PERI5XG: MAYBE GET A SWORD FROM BIS’ FORGE

bob: i have a lot of questions

PERI5XG: YOU’LL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS WHILE YOU’RE CUTTING US FREE FROM THE YARN

bob: a looooooot of questions

Lapis, holding a freshly forged, extremely sharp sword that Bismuth had let her borrow in exchange for telling her the whole story later, opened the door to the lair where she lived with Peridot. She was nearly swept off her feet by the tidal wave of yarn that spilled out. The yarn was so thick and tangled that she couldn’t even see more than a foot into her home. 

“Peri? Are you in there?”

“Lapis!” Peridot’s voice was very muffled, but still audible. “You came! Did you bring a sword?”

“Yes, but… what in the stars?!”

“Did you not explain what was happening?” said a second muffled voice from inside the yarn.

“Zircs? Why are you there?”

There was a deep sigh, and then: “Poor decision-making.”

Lapis began cutting through the yarn with the sword, quickly realizing it wasn’t the best choice of tool. “Well, you guys have a lot of time to explain while I’m cutting you free. First off, why yarn?”

Sodalite clasped their hands together in satisfaction. The knitting machine had come together quickly and easily, conforming to all the specifications laid out in their plans. They had no doubt that it was going to work well.

This was partially because they couldn’t afford to entertain much doubt, as a general rule. Their components were anxious enough that entertaining too much rumination would cause an immediate failure of existence. That was why it was important to be thorough, precise, and most of all, confident.

They turned on the machine.

A few minutes later, a beautiful, jewel-toned blue scarf popped out.

Sodalite was intensely relieved that the machine worked and did not explode, not that they had any doubt. Still, the scarf was not perfect. There were some flawed stitches towards the bottom, and that simply would not do.

They turned on the machine again, hoping to reproduce the flaw. After all, you can’t diagnose a problem without being able to consistently reproduce it. 

Of course, the second scarf was flawed in an entirely different way.

There was only one reasonable thing to do: set the machine to produce a statistically significant amount of scarves so that the problem could be pinned down scientifically.

“So after the first two hundred scarves or so, the machine jammed and just started spitting out infinite yarn tangles. That’s when we panicked and unfused.”

“Why didn’t you just stop the machine?” asked Lapis.

“That’s the problem,” Peridot explained. “Sodalite was the one who designed the machine. When we unfused, neither of us understood how it worked any more.”

“Why didn’t we just put an emergency stop in the machine? That’s what I don’t understand,” said Zircon.

“Why are you asking me? We were fused. You were there.”

“Yes, but you’re the engineer!”

“Why were you fused in the first place?” Lapis shook out her wrists. She had only progressed a few feet into the lair. “You both know Sodalite can be kind of… a lot.”

“Well…” Peridot started.

“Hey, Zircs, are you busy?”

Zircon looked at Peridot through her many holographic screens covered with work. “Yes, but I fear I’m not busy enough to stave off whatever plan you obviously have in mind.”

“You learned how to knit, right?” Peridot was bouncing with excitement.

“Yes…?”

“Great! We need to fuse!”

“Excuse me?!” Zircon collapsed down her screens in surprise. “Why?”

“Because I need to build a knitting machine to make matching scarves for me and Lapis!”

Zircon pinched the bridge of her nose. “I could just teach you how to knit, you know.”

“That would take forever,” said Peridot, exasperated. “If we fused, I’d know how to knit right away!”

“Fusion is not a substitute for properly learning skills!”

Peridot blinked. “It kind of is, though?”

“Regardless, we both know that Sodalite is, well…” Zircon fiddled with one of the pens on her desk. “They’re the combination of two basketcases, and therefore a multiplicative basketcase.”

Peridot narrowed her eyes. “Yeah. What’s your point?”

“Fusing and building a knitting machine is extremely likely to end in disaster.”

“It’s a knitting machine, Zircs. How much disaster could it possibly cause?”

“...do you really want me to expand on that point?”

“C’mon, it’s for Lapis. And it’ll be fun! I know you secretly enjoy building things.”

“No.”

“We can also use it to make cute cat toys for Stormy!”

“No.”

“Think of how cute she’d be in a little cat scarf!”

“I…” Zircon faltered.

“See? This is a great idea!”

Lapis paused in trying to cut through the yarn. “Zircs, every time I start to think you’re the responsible one, you end up being bribed by cat scarves.”

“I’ve only been bribed by cat scarves this one time!” Zircon protested, still very muffled by yarn. “...I do see your point, though.”

“I guess I get why you were fused, but I still don’t know why you wanted to build a knitting machine, Peri.”

“Check it out! It’s sweater weather!”

Peridot skipped into the lair, where Lapis was curled up in the hammock, reading. She was wearing one of Steven’s sweaters, a dark blue one with yellow stars across the front.

“What’s sweater weather?”

“I don’t know, it’s something Steven told me. So I took one of his old sweaters. I don’t think he’ll mind. What do you think?” Peridot spread her arms out wide.

“Hm, I don’t like it,” said Lapis.

“What? Why not?”

“Because it makes you too snuggly,” said Lapis, grabbing Peridot and hugging her.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” said Peridot, laughing. “You should be wearing a sweater too!”

“You know I don’t really do clothes that cover my gem, Peri.”

“Well… how about a scarf? We should have matching scarves! For the sweater weather!”

Lapis smiled. “Hmm… maybe.”

“So you see, this is at least a little bit your fault,” said Peridot.

“Really? Is that what you’re going with?” Lapis put down the sword. She could almost see a hint of bright green through the tangle of yarn. “You know, Peri, I could just leave you here forever.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“People would ask, ‘What happened to your girlfriend?’ and I’d say, ‘Oh, Peridot? She went on an expedition to a remote colony and was never heard from again.’”

“Lapis, how could you?!”

“Could you at least finish cutting me free?” asked Zircon. “I am in no way claiming this is your fault.”

“Zircs, you’d abandon me?!”

“I don’t want to die here!”

“We’re not going to die. It’s yarn.”

“I have work I should be doing!”

“You’re not going to die from not getting your work done!”

“You don’t know that, Peridot!”

“I could just leave you both here, you know!” said Lapis, dropping the sword.

There was a moment of silence.

“In my defense,” said Peridot, “there are actually a lot of cute scarves for you somewhere in here!”

“All of which have uniquely flawed stitches,” added Zircon.

“Zircs, stop talking. That’s exactly what got us into trouble with the machine.”

“Need I remind you that both the machine and the fusion were your idea?”

Lapis tuned out the din of squabbling as she worked her way through the increasingly thick yarn tangle. She had long ago accepted that loving Peridot sometimes meant saving her from self-inflicted disasters. At least she had post-self-inflicted-disaster cuddling in the hammock to look forward to.

Lapidot for Professionals on AO3

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